You may not be aware that buying an REO, a bank owned property, is quite a different process then buying a property the old fashioned way, and it is extremely important that your Realtor understands the difference. Let me tell you why if your Realtor doesn’t know the vast difference between the two, how it can cost you a lot of money, and possibly cause you to all together lose your property.
When a bank owns a property, they have complete control over the situation. They have the ability to make the rules and do not have to follow any disclosure requirements. The bank will typically have you, the buyer, sign an addendum which will give them full disclosure to the process, and leave you with no protections.
The bank will set a timeline that they demand you stay on top of, or they will enforce consequences on you. The odd thing is that they can take all the time they need before they deliver any type of response to you. Almost a month ago, I was approved and have been holding money in escrow for a bank owned property. It took the bank three weeks into the thirty-day period before they even opened my escrow.
It took a full three weeks before we received my contract and addendum. Not so lucky for us that when we first signed into this contract, it stated that we would be charged $100 per day per Diem for every day that went past the thirty-day period!
Of course the bank took their time, and never completed anything in a timely fashion, causing us to not be able to meet the deadline. As you may already know, the majority of short sales do not close with a hitch. A short sale doesn’t have to be a terrible experience, but if your Realtor doesn’t put in the time and effort, it will end up being just that. By the same token, REO’s can end up the same way. In my case however, my Realtor assured me that everything was moving along smoothly, and we were just waiting for a response from the bank.
Article submitter B. Stein knows all about shopping new homes for sale plus properties overall. Check out his other articles on the internet.